MELOMANIA brings you the (short and) sweet version from the portable HQ
Needless to say. Still lots of music for the journey wherever you travel.
The reviews are a little concise this week as Melomania has been experiencing the true mania of being away at a function. We hope you enjoy these dispatches from the road.
GHOST WOMAN [LP/CD](Full Time Hobby UK)
The well-traveled touring musician Evan John Uschekno (Michael Rault) creates his own trebly twilight work of hazy summer of ‘66 Psychedelic rock. His guitar seems to spin golden riffs in the style of Widowspeak and Brian Jonestown Massacre. “All The Time” opens the album like a curtain being drawn. The dual twanging guitars tangle with the main downstrummed chords while his distant vocals make it even dreamier. “Do You” is that slow whirling dervish of a circus-mirror viewed world, “Dead & Gone” is the driving near Mod single that both clearly sees for miles and has a rugged Queens of the Stone Age-ish one inch punch. Period production makes this engine turn but many of these hooks could emerge on their own. However, with many cuts wielding contact-buzz harmonies like “Behind Your Eyes,” you have to come back for more.
PICTORIA VARK - The Parts I Dread [LP/CD](Get Better/Redeye)
Doing time playing bass with Squirrel Flower and continuing to write for herself have really helped Victoria Park shape her evocative songs. There may be no shortage of songs about being pulled away from your home as a child and shipped like a parcel to another. Park develops “Wyoming” like she is actually putting that puzzle together both while writing and recording. The raw emotional shifts hold a lot of promise. “Good For” opens with a brilliant flourish before becoming a pastoral epic, “Demarest” is even more threadbare and consuming. Park’s arrangements around her songs with her band lend to her songwriting craft and make her already stand out from the pack.
DEAD HORSES - Brady Street [CD](Vos & Wolff/AMPED)
The Milwaukee duo of Sarah Vos and Dan Wolff could be like any other AAA/Americana types. However, “It’s All Good” peels back the layers on what makes them marketable (Vos’ Merchant/Brickell-ish vocals, post 80’s jangle) and slides in some thought-provoking lyrics (“The church gives out a loaf of bread/because Jesus spoke and Jesus fed/and I just keep on walking past” - the last word delivered with a devastating pause and whisper.) Then, as soon as you think you pinned them down with a wordless chorus and shimmering guitars - they sail out with a gritty, almost Garage-ish ending. “Brady Street” sticks to its guns on melodic lyrics while changing the color of the destination for these wandering travelers dealing with “cognitive dissonance.” With all the predestined hits and their soundalikes gumming up AAA, Dead Horses are here to bring it life.
MADALITSO BAND - Musakayike [LP](Bongo Joe SWI)
There is a magical happiness this Malawian folk duo exude. From the first twang of their 4-string guitar, you are smiling. The tracks are a dizzying mix of the sort of “found” thump of the one-string bass and the mellow airy “pat” of the cowskin drum. “Diya” is perhaps the most single-worthy, but no song steers you wrong.
BLOOD - Bye Bye [10”](Permanent Creeps UK)
This Philadelphia band take the serpentine path to near No Wave-ish wildness. “Luck” is their Birthday Party-featuring-Arto Lindsay way to fly. The band pushes the tension so hard but never roars leaving all the necessary space for the quivering croon and skronk guitar to battle it out like rams. “Money Worries” is even more chaotic descending quickly into a Beefheart-ian rumble and then dissolving into a Folk/Shoegazer bridge. “Borstal Field” finds a Liars-ish brutality/beauty. Very promising.
Well, another week, another list of several different styles and pursuits in music for you. Enjoy. Listen again. Share as you wish.
NEW RELEASES lovingly compiled for you from this very week!
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